Australia’s Gold Coast: The Indian women’s cricket team will face a test by fire when it makes its day-night Test debut with Australia in the one-off game at Gold Coast on Thursday, after gaining considerable momentum with a battling effort in one-dayers.
The Mithali Raj-led side has only two practise sessions left before the historic Test, with the third ODI taking place on Sunday and the following day being a rest day. In the shorter format series, the visitors were defeated 1-2. The team has no idea how the gleaming pink ball will perform during the game at Metricon Stadium.
Australia, who contested their lone day-night Test in November 2017, likewise has minimal experience, but their formidable pace attack will relish the opportunity to wreak havoc on the greenish pitch here. India performed admirably in their first Test match in seven years, drawing with England in June, but players and pundits believe the skiddy pink-ball would present a far more difficult task for the viewers. India and Australia last played a Test match in 2006, with just Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami from both sides appearing in the match.
“Though Australia have more Test experience than India of late, their players also haven’t played a lot in the whites. Some of their key players are missing and India showed (in ODIs) that Australia are beatable,” she added.
Shantha, who guided India to their first Test victory in 1976, praised the BCCI for restarting women’s Test cricket and expressed hope that two-day red-ball cricket will return to local cricket.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s health for the match is still in question, despite a hit in the nets on the night of the competition. Yastika Bhatia, a rookie hitter, and Meghna Singh, a bowler, both made strong ODI debuts and could be granted their first Test caps.
The anticipated pace trio is veteran Jhulan Goswami, Meghna, and Pooja Vastrakar. Along with Deepti Sharma, spinner Sneh Rana is expected to be the other all-rounder on the side. As per FirstPost.
